1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image pickup device, method, computer program product, and recording medium that can change a digital zoom area in or out of a zooming process and/or can obtain a view of images outside of the digital zoom area.
2. Discussion of the Background Art
An image pickup device, typified by a digital camera, has a digital zoom function as a zoom function. In this digital zoom function an image is not zoomed by a zoom lens as in an optical zoom function, but instead the digital zoom function is a geometrical conversion process carried out on an image signal obtained as an electronic signal. In other words, the digital zoom function is an electronic zoom process.
Up to now, it has been common for the zoom process to be carried out on a central region in a monitor display screen obtained as an object to be imaged, just as in an optical zoom function. Namely, the zoom process has been carried out as a zooming in on the central region in the monitor display screen, and image data corresponding to that central zoomed area has been recorded.
When the zoom process is carried out, since the monitor display screen displays a picked-up image screen, it is often inconvenient at the time of photographing that images that lie outside of the digital zoom area, i.e., that lie outside of the central region of the monitor display screen, can not be seen or zoomed on by an operator of the digital camera.
Laid-Open Japanese Patent Application No. 6-165012 discloses displaying the monitor display screen after combining a small screen image that is not zoomed onto with a part of the monitor screen image that is zoomed onto.